Information is increasingly being used in a variety of forms and platforms, including by a variety of applications and services that are available over computer networks such as the Internet. Geographical information system (GIS) information is especially increasing in its popularity and use. GIS information can be any type of geographical information or information related to location. A variety of web services such as mapping services, directory services, search engines, on-line advertising services, government services, and other business services are accessing or otherwise using GIS information as part of their businesses. Increasingly, however, the reliability and accuracy of such geographical information covering a variety of locations has caused problems.
The collection, entry and maintenance of GIS information presents unique challenges. GIS data is often collected from a variety of sources using different location based identification systems or inputs. For example, geographical information such as satellite imagery is often obtained with corresponding satellite information data such as longitude and latitude. This satellite imagery, however, is captured independent of on-the-ground location information such as mailing addresses or other location based addressing schemes. Other GIS information, such as, the location of businesses along streets, is often received from different data records or originally captured without any reference to geographical location. Additionally some of this information, as it is collected from different sources or is originally incomplete, may conflict.
Challenges with maintaining and updating GIS information arise in many situations. In some cases, geographical information has errors in its original collection that need to be corrected. In other cases, potentially accurate data needs to be verified, or data that was accurate has changed and needs to be modified. For example, geographical information often needs to be updated in accordance with changes in a business area or condition, such as when a business closes or new businesses open, or when building zoning or development changes impact a street or neighborhood. These challenges to updating GIS information are especially difficult given that changes in a business area or situation are not likely to be automatically detected by any currently existing system.